Netherlands: department store staff deprived of pay raise to save jobs

ment of the V&D Dutch department store individually asked its 11,500 employees to voluntarily give up the 3.3% pay raise provided for in the collective agreement, proposing that it be postponed from July 2009 to February 2010. (Ref. 090721)

V&D says this measure would help bring the planned job cuts from 500 down to about 60. For their part, top managers are going to give up 5% of their salary until February 2010. Denouncing “improper methods,” unions are asking employees not to give in to empl